Hoot of the Day
French president Emmanuel Macron is calling on other countries to join him in refusing to sign new deals with ‘powers that do not respect’ the Paris Accord
Please consider this hoot of the day: Macron Rejects Trade Deals with Countries Outside Paris Climate Accord.
>Emmanuel Macron has announced France will no longer accept “commercial agreements” with countries that do not “respect” the Paris Climate Accord during a fiery speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
The French president called for the upholding of trade rules that “guarantee fair competition on equal footing” during his Tuesday speech, following a Monday afternoon meeting with Donald Trump and the US president’s speech on Monday morning. Mr Macron appeared defiant towards Mr Trump, suggesting he’d no longer negotiate trade deals with the US after its withdrawal from the climate agreement last year.
“We will no longer sign commercial agreements with powers that do not respect the Paris accord,” Mr Macron said without directly referencing Mr Trump or the US.
What a Hoot
I suggest France start with Germany.
German Parties Agree to Drop 2020 Climate Goal
Politico reports German Parties Agree to Drop 2020 Climate Goal
Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) agreed during preliminary coalition talks to give up the country’s climate goal for 2020, according to media reports.
The two blocs decided that reaching the goal — to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 — is unrealistic.
Germany Fails Paris Climate Accord Test
Climate Home News reports Germany’s New government Deal fails the Paris Climate Accord Test.
It’s three steps forward and four back as Angela Merkel resumes government in coalition with the social democrats.
The new coalition no longer aims to reach the German 2020 climate target in time. With this announcement, Germany officially steps down as an international climate champion and undermines the Paris Agreement as a whole.
Hypocrisy Abounds
The Daily Signal reports Germany Becomes the New Poster Child for Climate Change Hypocrisy
Color me not at all surprised that Germany, a vocal critic of the U.S.’ decision to exit the Paris climate accord, is preparing to abandon its 2020 climate targets.
Trump vs Merkel
Trump is at least honest about this. Merkel criticizes Trump and Germany is at least as bad thanks to Merkel’s willingness to look the other way about German-manufactured cars.
So much for the “go green and grow the economy” mantra.
OK Macron, unless you are an even bigger hypocrite than Merkel, please step up to the plate and refuse deals with Germany, the US, the UK, and China.
Talk is cheap.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Merkel has promised to close all nuclear reactors by 2022.
This means that since wind and solar only work part of the time Germany has to use lots of Russian gas for electricity generation therefore the 2nd russian gas pipe under the baltic sea is urgently needed.
Burning gas instead of using nuclear power creates a lot more climate change emissions.
However gas will most likely not be enough so Germany will also have to use coal despite Merkel also wanting to get rid of coal earlier.
Merkel makes many stupid political choices and has always gotten a pass…
Germany’s politicians are actually not hypocritical for abandoning the Paris accord targets. They were delusional when they agreed to these targets in the first place. It simply cannot be done, as in, it is not affordable, unless everybody agrees it’s OK to go back to the Stone Age.
Many EU countries still cling to these crazy targets so either they will have to do what Germany did aka forget those targets OR crash their economies thereby crashing economy in whole of EU.
Climate change has little to do with climate. It has to do with transfer of wealth and making us peasants properly poor. Here are two data points. Close to 100 of the delegates to the 2014 climate shindig in the Netherlands arrived by private jet. This represents “correct” the CO2 footprint for the anointed. My daughter brought a spreadsheet home from school that supposedly calculated your family’s CO2 footprint based on floorspace, miles driven, etc. We footprint 5.6 times to big . I worked it backwards to get 1.0 and found that our “correct” living arrangement was public transportation and 150sq. ft. per person. That is what the anointed want for the rest of us. There are a few days here and there when I’m damn glad I voted for the Donald.
“Hypocrisy Abounds”
They are all driving around in fossil fuel vehicles. They are all using products produced by fossil fuel energy. They aren’t going to stop in order to practice what they preach.
Several years ago we had a severe drought and lawn watering was limited to twice a week. The Mayor of Los Angeles at the time, got caught breaking the rules.
Obama said that climate change was real and dangerous, yet he never curbed his use of Air Force One, to cut his own carbon emissions.
The developed world isn’t the problem. No company is going to build a coal fired plant in the US ever again. The problems are in the 3rd world where renewable energy plants cost too much per Kw generated.
That’s it. There’s really no substitute for poorer parts getting wealthy enough to afford caring about pollution as well.
That is why China and India and all the other even less developed countries have been given a pass.
All the while EU plans to strangle the EU economy.
EU can NOT pay back any of EU countries debt because they are all using more debt continually and their plan is to crash their economies to “stop” climate change while China, India and rest of Asia and whole of Africa continue and increase their emissions.
Pollution control doesn’t work unless there is population control. Nobody wants individual rights curbed. Governments need a growing population to support their national debts.
Growing population of people who consume more services and welfare paid by tax revenue than they pay in taxes leads to the national debt becoming unsustainable quicker.
This is the situation in USA since illegal immigrants and legal low wage immigrants in the tens of millions consume more than they pay and their kids also consume more than they pay according to school dropout data and only getting high school diploma if graduating at all most of the time.
This is the situation in EU since education results are dropping massively in Sweden and Germany and France and Belgium and other countries who have taken millions of immigrants from countries such as Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia etc
and unemployment among migrants is high and welfare use is also high.
Sweden is already a basket case with 58% of rapes committed by immigrants or people from immigrant background during the last 5 years according to study and BBC report.
According to Swedish Newspaper Expressen 98% of gang-rapes are committed by migrants or people from migrant background.
Sweden is an example of a country who chose to destroy itself.
Please do not call carbon dioxide “pollution”. It is an indispensable trace gas.
Of course. Without even the small amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere that we have today, global temperatures would drop 50 degrees Fahrenheit and start a new ice age.
No. Temperatures would be the same but all life would end.
Lots of people like beer, but alcohol is poison and too much will kill you. CO2=same deal. Too much CO2 IS pollution, duh.
Perhaps you can contribute by ceasing to exhale?
CO2 is about as inert as it gets. Aside from Helium, Argon and the like, it’s about the least poisonous gas there is.
Rather than looking at this trough the fictitious lens of some supposed Macron VS trump showdown; I suggest you look at it as Macron’s slightly more PC way of channeling Trump. Opening up for France to impose tariffs just as arbitrarily as Trump is. With the only difference being, Macron will impose them “because of Gaia.” Rather than “because of West Virginia coalminers.” If anything, and considering imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’d say Trump has reason to pat himself on the back over this one.
China and India, the world’s first and second largest polluters, were exempted from any remediation or reduction obligations in pollution until 2030.
Will France not deal with China and India until 2030?
I suggest that Macron start with a visit to WWI and WWII cemeteries.